Friday, March 29, 2013

Slices collapse and that makes me feel like the walls are coming down

Whitney wrapped up season two Wednesday night on NBC with two episodes. In the second one, Whitney caught her therapist eating cake in the park -- or devouring an entire cake.

Whitney: What you did was weird. Okay? And you cut your cake in squares, not in slices. It's chilling.Chelsea: Slices collapse and that makes me feel like the walls are coming down.Whitney: Don't say that, obviously don't say that. That's like something I would say and I feel like if you're going to be my therapist --Chelsea: Oh, I'm sorry. Do you want to talk about me? Fine. We can talk about me. I just had two White Russians at Denny's. And sometimes I pee standing up and I keep a box of arugela in my closet. You want to go there?

So Chelsea Handler (guest starring as Whitney's therapist) was a great edition to the season two wrap up.

So was the flip for Alex and Whitney. He's always been sure they'd survive anything while Whitney's always been sure they'd break up. A few episodes ago we saw Whitney and Alex go to his family's cabin and his father told Whitney, but not Alex, that they were having problems. Now Alex's brother tells him his parents are splitting up. So it was a nice flip there where Whitney (of all people) got to feel secure.

Lily spent the episode explaining to Roxanne that she couldn't keep pushing Mark away and also expect him to wait for her. When she was explaining Roxanne had to be nice to the new woman he was with, Mark interrupted them and asked to be alone with Roxanne. Lily asked Roxanne, "Could I get five for a cab?" Roxanne fixed her with a glare.

Lily: You know what? Just hit my Paypal.

So what happened with Mark and Roxanne? They finally kissed. There better be a season three. This is NBC's best comedy and one of the best comedies on TV. (Happy Endings and The Neighbors are the other great sitcoms on network TV.)

The title of the post! I just loved it when Chelsea said it on the episode. It was chilling and hilarious.

Friday, March 29, 2013. Chaos and violence continue, protests continue
in Iraq, Salah al-Mutlaq learns what it is to be hated, we examine
another area where the Iraq War had influence, and more.

Kitabat notes
that protests took place in six provinces today -- with Saleh al-Mutlaq
being called out throughout which well get to. Kitabat notes that
Falluja protesters say they are in it for the long haul, until the
suffering Iraqi people ends. National Iraqi News Agency reports:

The
protester's spokesman in Anbar, Sheikh Saeed Allafi highly praised the
stand taken by Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, leader of the Sadrists movement
towards demonstrators and protesters in a number of governorates of
Iraq, denouncing in the same time what he called the opportunistic
pragmatic attitudes by deputy PM, Saleh al-Mutlaq. Lafi added in a
statement to NINA: "Muqtada al-Sadr, chose to stand with the masses when
he deduced that the government arbitrary robs the rights of the masses.He
said: "The protesters of Anbar condemn the shameful attitude of Mutlaq,
who stripped from the Iraqiya Slate and went to support Maliki
government at the expense of the oppressed people.

Al-Shorfa notes:Protesters in Baghdad, Diyala, Salaheddine, Anbar, Kirkuk and Ninawa
asked the Iraqi government to meet 13 demands they said were legitimate
and constitutional. "We hope this Friday will be the start of the end for the peaceful
popular movement, by way of the government's response to our demands,"
said Sheikh Qusay Eddine al-Zein, spokesman for Anbar demonstrators. "The demonstrators will not leave until the last demand has been
met," he told Al-Shorfa. "Not as a favour from the government but as an
enshrined right that must be restored to us under the new democratic
system in Iraq." "The government began discussing the demands and announced it would
meet four of them," said Sheikh Abdullah al-Samarrae, Friday preacher in
Samarra, Salaheddine province. "That is a good sign, but all demands
must be met."

NINA notes that Iraiqya is blaming the al-Mutlaq split on Hayder al-Mulla. In Samarra, Iraqi Spring MC documents,
a banner was raised at the sit-in noting the cry of "No on federalism,
no on sectarianism, no on divisions. Yes to the glory and dignity of
Iraq."

And AFP notes
that the Kirkuk bombing death toll grew to 4 with seventy-two injured
while 2 teachers were shot dead in Kut and the press received the usual
treatment: "Security forces elsewhere in the capital threatened to
detain AFP
journalists for attempting to film and take photographs of the aftermath
of the bombings." On the topic of violence, Jane Arraf Tweets:

With very few exceptions, an important event in Iraq went unnoticed in
the U.S. media this month. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki sent a force
that included helicopters to western Iraq to arrest Rafi al-Issawi, the
former finance minister and a leading Sunni Arab opposition member.
Al-Issawi, who was protected by armed members of the Abu Risha clan, one
of post-2003 Iraq’s most powerful Sunni tribes, escaped capture.

This action came on the heels of al-Maliki’s telephone conversation
with Secretary of State John Kerry and took Washington by surprise. Had a
confrontation ensued, the results would have been calamitous. It could
even have provided the spark for the beginning of a civil war. Still,
al-Maliki’s actions represent another nail in the coffin for a unified
Iraq. Al-Maliki, a Shiite Muslim, had previously accused Vice President
Tariq al-Hashimi, a leading Sunni political figure, of terrorism,
forcing him to flee Iraq in 2011. Al-Hashimi was subsequently tried in
absentia and sentenced to death.

Al-Maliki’s policies have significantly raised tensions in the Sunni
regions of Iraq. There are demonstrations in many of the Sunni provinces
that seek to emulate those of the Arab Spring. They are one reason
al-Maliki has targeted al-Issawi. He wants to contain the dissent before
it spreads.

The costs of the illegal war have been many. Reason notes the 4 to 6 trillion dollar tab." Yesterday we noted, Ernesto Londono (Washington Post) report, "The U.S. wars in Afghanistan and
Iraq will cost taxpayers between $4 trillion to $6 trillion, taking into
account the medical care of wounded veterans and expensive repairs to a
force depleted by more than a decade fighting, according to a new study
by a Harvard researcher [Linda J. Bilmes]." That's where that cost was
coming from. Those costs did not all take place in 2003 -- the
veterans who were wounded were wounded throughout the Iraq War and the
Afghanistan War. So it's kind of strange that some want to look at
other costs but only look at 2003. It's also kind of strange the terms
they use. Chris Hedges (TruthDig) had a great column this week with a factual error and Tom Cleveland (All Voices)
may have realized it and tried to pad it out by taking "TV news" and
adding "broadcast journalism" to it. But while the reality is that Phil
Donahue shouldn't have been pulled from MSNBC -- his was the highest
rated program, a fact that no one seems to note, he was beating Chris
Matthews in the ratings when he was pulled -- the reality is also that
he wasn't doing TV news -- nor is Matthews or any of the talk show hosts
on MSNBC or any other channel. Talk shows are not news. They can
sometimes qualify as public affairs programming but they are not news.

I can remember watching Today on
NBC, for example, Monday, January 12, 2004. It's an entertainment show
that features news. And a breathless report did a live report that
Matt Lauer swallowed because eh is so disgusting and such a piece of
s**t and that's why so many of us are so thrilled to see his downfall
take place in public (hey, Matt, at least you got in some good golfing
with George H.W. Bush, right?). So there was Matty Lauer open mouthed in
shock at the 'news' being reported. Ron Suskind's book (which the
reporter was waiving on air) The Price of Loyalty
would be released the next day and it was all these fantastic charges
by former Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill and it included
documents that the White House said O'Neill was in trouble for taking
and they were talking criminal charges and . . . .

And I was dialing on my cell phone to friends at Today
asking WTF was going on. How the hell did that piece of crap presented
as reporting make the air? I too had an advanced copy and, unlike the
NBC 'reporter,' I had actually read the book. But you didn't need to
read the whole book, I pointed out on the phone repeatedly, to know that
O'Neill asked permission to take the files when he left the White House
-- that's in Ron Suskind's opening introduction.

The next day,
January 13, 2004, Katie Couric did a mop up segment where they addressed
the fact that, yes, O'Neill did have permission to take those files.
There would be no prosecution and he had broken no laws. She did it
with another reporter. No one mentioned the previous report. Katie is
gone from Today by her own choice, the reporter who did the mop
up is at another network because NBC didn't give a damn about facts
repeatedly. Matt Lauer's only being brought down today because he's no
longer pretty to look at and the reporter who did the false report, the
bag boy for the White House who waived a book on air that he didn't read
the first pages of (the introduction)?

That was David Gregory. And for being a whore and not a journalist, he was eventually promoted to host of Meet The Press -- where he scares away viewers with that creepy forehead that screams for either botox or bangs.

So spare me your Chevy to levy drive about the day TV news supposedly died. Worth noting, on the topic of Ron Suskind, that the well researched, by the facts journalist published another look at another administration, this one was Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President.
It was a different administration but the tactics that White House used
to discredit Suskind's books were incredibly similar and it's very sad
that the American tax dollar is repeatedly misused by administrations to
brainstorm how to attack US citizens who say things the White House
disagrees with.

That 2011 treatment? Much more important to a
story about the death of journalism than Phil Donahue's firing.
Donahue's firing was well noted in real time and it continues to be.
It's not hidden history. What was done to Ron Suskind -- by Republican
and by Democratic administrations? Much less well known and
representative of the problem in journalism. We were going to be the
media.

That was the promise in 2003. I didn't understand it. I
was speaking all over the country, starting in February 2003, against
the Iraq War. As I traveled city to city, campus to campus, young
America was outraged by the Iraq War but adement that something good
would come from this crime: The creation of a new media. Blogs and
websites and serv-lists and micro-radio and web radio and all these
other terms I had no idea about. (This site started in November 2004
and I didn't know what I was doing then anymore than I do today.)

And
for a brief moment, that did look possible. But there was no real
desire to build a media and you can see that looking back today. I
think the people I met were sincere, I just think they were lied to,
tricked and duped by so many. Take Air America. That was the biggest
con job in the world, in all of its incarnations which began in 2004.
In terms of being opposed to the Iraq War, the hosts Laura Flanders,
Janeane Garofalo, Sam Seder, Mike Malloy, Lizz Winstead (only if Chuck D
were on Unfiltered that day, with War Hawk Rachel Maddow who repeatedly
stated on air that the US couldn't leave Iraq, Lizz was silent), Marc
Maron and Randi Rhodes were. That may seem like a lot but there were a
lot of hours to fill. And, again, if Chuck D wasn't around, Rachel was
pimping her learn-to-love the war b.s. She repeatedly cited Colin
Powell's 'Pottery Barn rule' (if you break it, you buy it -- Pottery
Barn has no such rule) and insisted that the US remain in Iraq. She
refused to allow anti-war veterans to come on her show. (By contrast,
Janeane and Sam were happy to interview those currently serving, who'd
been deployed to Iraq and were saying that the US needed to withdraw.)

Air
America Radio talked about the need to build a new media. It was just
talk to cover the fact that they only existed to get Democrats elected
(I'm referring now to the money backing the effort and not the on
airs). So the ratings challenged, money destroying 'network' finally
went under as soon as a Democrat was elected to the White House.

But
it never needed to be that way. The so-called history of Air America
Radio is largely a lie. By the summer of 2004, Air America Radio had
enough listeners to be a hit, enough to make a healthy profit. It had
listeners all over the country and was breaking records.

If
you're skeptical of this, that's because you've been lied to and
misled. The focus was on land-locked radio stations, physical ones.
That's not where their audience was. Their audience was in streaming.
Real Player, for example, had never had any demand like it before. They
had to change their streaming procedures and rules for Air America.
This could have been built on, this was the model. But they weren't
interested in a new media. Again, Real Player had never seen anything
like it before. Streaming in the millions and not for a minute or two
but for hours -- it was averaging that over 50% of Air America Radio
listeners were listening for six continuous hours.

Air American
Radio was a flop and that's because they wanted to be old media. That's
because they whored as well and not just in terms of the Democratic
Party. I can tell all the tales because I know the bulk of the
players. Sam Seder, for example? Cowed easily. The first time? On
air, he was repeatedly attacking Adam Nagourney's bad journalism. A New York Times
reader once wished that Nagourney was dead and Drama Queen Nagrouney
tried to inflate it into a death threat -- destroying the poor man's
life in the process. So Seder couldn't have picked a worse target.
Nags whined like the little priss he is and got the advertising
department to call Air America Radio and threaten to pull the New York Times
ads (which were then running once an hour) if Seder didn't shut up.
Seder not only shut up, he immediately deleted his comedy blogAd Nags.

The one truly independent program Air America had was The Laura Flanders Show.
In part because Laura had decades of experience and was a popular on
air in the Bay Area and in part because she broadcast (live) Saturday
and Sunday evenings (three hours each night), she was left alone and
built up a huge following. She could and did bring on war resisters.
She could and did loudly decry the illegal war. Only Janeane matched
Laura for eloquence when it came to speaking out against the Iraq War
and for devotion to covering that topic. And that meant that Janeane
and Laura called out Democrats as a result. On Janeane's show, there
was Sam Seder to act as rescuer and point out some good quality to the
elected officials who was a War Hawk. There was no such person on
Laura's show.

So how could the curb her? They needed to partner her, you understand, it will be good for all involved. So began Radio Nation with Laura Flanders.
It started off okay. But Laura was fighting for everyone of those
programs. I'm not fond of Laura Flanders anymore because she's been a
stooge for Barack so don't think this is me doing a favor for someone I
like. This is about reality and recognition to those who tried. Laura
fought like crazy to make shows that matter. Not only was she fighting
Air America, she was also fighting The Nation magazine. And as
her show as stripped of hours, The Nation began insisting more and more
that since they were 'sponsoring' the show, the guests should include Nation journalists.
Soon that's all it included. Each week was about the pseudo-issues
being churned out by that week's bad print edition. Laura created Grit TV
for a reason. I wish it were worth watching, I wish she had the guts
and courage she once did to decry what is going on today. Maybe she
can't because of all she went through at Air America? Maybe the scars
are too deep. But while she was on Air America Radio, she fought to get
coverage that mattered, she fought to keep the Iraq War a topic of
discussion even though Air America was issuing statements (once Lionel
and others were added, orders were no longer needed, the hosts were
determined to comply with mere suggestions) that Iraq not be covered
(because the Democratic Party had walked away from it). To her last
show on Air America Radio, Laura fought like crazy to make it matter.

And
Air America Radio could have mattered. I was at the meeting in August
2004 where the suits discussed whether to go forward with trying to buy
radio stations and syndicate or rather they build on the unheard of web
presence. I was being asked to invest. I didn't. If they had built
around the web, I would have because that seemed new whereas the plans
presented about purchasing radio stations and syndication reminded me of
the problems a friend had with her workout studios. I stated at that
meeting that I would invest if it pursued the online model only. I
pointed out the problems that they already had with stations --
including knocking out a Black radio station which the local community
greatly (and rightly) resented. Across the nation, they were going to
grab stations (low-rated, yes, but they did have listeners) and try to
penetrate new markets as a new entity while pissing off segments of the
audience by taking over these existing stations? I didn't see it as a
win and I didn't see that the network could carry off purchasing those
stations, let alone running them.

'So that's what happens when a corporation tries to be of the people,' you say. 'It's bound to end in disaster.'

Maybe,
but what didn't end in disaster. The Iraq War made Pacifica Radio a
national presence. It was something to see. And on air, they covered
Iraq. They didn't do an Iraq show, that was too much work. But if it
was in the news that day, they did mention it. Brian Edwards-Tiekert,
to his credit, did try to build enthusiasm for an Iraq War program.
When that failed, he tried to talk stations into carrying War News Radio
-- which some saw as an effort to kill local voices but was actually an
effort to get Pacifica to focus on the wars -- which is why Pacifica is
supposed to be around. But the Iraq War was a cash cow to Pacifica.

They
didn't get Air America Radio numbers -- no one had ever gotten those
numbers before and probably won't again - but they did see huge
increases in streaming. KPFA being the most news based of the Pacifica
stations benefited the most. WBAI, not able to grasp what a schedule is
or that dead men should maybe go off the air after they did and not
still be hosting a weekly series, saw starts and spurts. In terms of
streaming, their hits were Law and Disorder Radio, Taking Aim with Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone, Wake Up Call with Deepa Fernandes and Behind The News With Doug Henwood.
Of those four programs, only Law and Disorder remains (and has greatly
increased its syndication around the country). Wake Up Call remains
with a new host who seems to think a party atmosphere is needed. Deepa now works for KPCC.
Doug Henwood's WBAI show was dumped by WBAI but KPFA saw the value in
it (they were repeating it already) and it was such a hit on Saturdays
that it's now got prime afternoon time during the week (Thursdays at
noon). Mya and Ralph are no longer on WBAI. I like Ralph and Mya but
they're off because they were greedy. They were being offered another
slot and it wasn't good enough for them. Since the bulk of their
listeners came from archives and not from live radio, the time slot
shouldn't have mattered, they would have still had the show and its
internet presence would have remained but a pride factor entered in and
that's their own damn fault. All of Pacifica, but especially WBAI
hosts, should be made very aware that they do not own any of the
airwaves or any segment on the schedule. The failure to do that has
been the biggest downfall for Pacifica and it's why so few of the shows
matter today. In addition, they waste a fortune on Mitch Jeserich's bad
program when that money could be spent on programming that matters and
not yet another public affairs program. That features the same guests
you hear on all the other Pacifica stations.

But while Iraq was
covered, they made money. KPFA had pledges from all over. Not token
ones, either. They had people from other states pledging and doing so
with the monthly pledge on the credit card. They were rolling in dough
and that was because of the Iraq War. Yet they refused to create a
program for it and when the Democratic Party officials lost interest in
the war, so did KPFA and others. And they lost listeners and they lost
donations and it still hasn't hit them. They still get on air and
mention Iraq in pitches for money. They have to do their beg-a-thons
even more frequently these days. It's because they failed the
listener. The Iraq War gave them a chance to prove they were something
different from the mainstream. Forget that they all whored for Barack
in 2008 -- and I mean during the primaries, not just in the general
election. They ran off listeners by ignoring Iraq. Even to this day,
when KPFA broadcasts rare Iraq coverage -- take the great radio
documentary that Nora Barrows-Friedman just did and Flashpoints broadcast entitled Iraqi Frequencies: 10 Years of Occupation and Resistance. If you missed it, you can currently click here and stream. It is also posted at Project Censored for streaming but that's a KPFA stream as well. Nora made the documentary with Shakomako and they've posted it at their website.
But even to this day, when they do rare Iraq coverage, it helps the
station. Nora's documentary helped the station so much that they damn
well should be re-establishing her as full time employee -- full time
paid employee. I don't know if she's aware of the huge positive
response KPFA has received over that documentary.

And if they'd
continued to cover Iraq, things could have mattered. Working from a
Justice Department press release, Sandra Lupien broke the news of War
Crimes that the US was willing to prosecute. We're talking about Steven
D. Green who was convicted May 7, 2009 for his crimes in March 12, 2006 gang-rape and murder of Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi,
the murder of her parents and the murder of her five-year-old sister
while Green was serving in Iraq. Green was found to have killed all
four, to have participated in the gang-rape of Abeer and to have been
the ringleader of the conspiracy to commit the crimes and the conspiracy
to cover them up. May 21, 2009,
the federal jury deadlocked on the death penalty and instead he was
sentenced to life in prison. From the July 3, 2006 snapshot:

Sandra Lupien noted on today on KPFA's The Morning Show, the military had put the age of the female at 20 years-old when they announced their investigation last week (Friday). Reuters reports
that the mayor of Mahmudiya declared today that the woman "was no more
than 16 years old when she was killed along with her parents and young
sister". Lupien also noted the arrest of Steven D. Green. Green, is 21
and was with the 101st Airborne Division of the US Army. Friday, in Asheville, North Carolina, he was arrested and charged with both the four deaths as well as the rape. According to the US government press release,
if convicted on the charge of murder, "the maximum statutory penalty . .
. is death" while, if convicted on the charge of rape, "the maximum
statutory penalty for the rape is life in prison."

Sandra
Lupien always found things that others missed and when no one -- not
even the major dailies -- were aware of the arrest, KPFA listeners knew
about it. That's why they donated. That's why people out of state
streamed and donated. KPFA had a national presence and listeners from
around the country who were willing to donate for that kind of
coverage. And they threw it away. Did so knowingly. There was a
slaughter in Iraq one day which was only noted on the newsbreak and
Aimee Allison groaned that she was "so sick of hearing about Iraq." It
was a mini-rant which was partly recorded in the studio (she wasn't on
air during her rant) and part of the reason why, when she was fired, no
one gave a damn. (It hadn't helped that she'd taken to the airwaves to
call for book burning -- specifically she wanted copies of The New
Yorker burned because they ran an image ridiculing The Prophet Barack.
That kind of nonsense will never build good will in the Bay Area where
we don't take to supporting book burning for any reason -- certainly not
to whore for a politician.)

So corporate new media failed, public media failed. But what of this new media?

As great magazines like Clamor
closed shop, the left model wasn't apparently going to be print. But
there was Independent Media Center. Remember that? It had seed money
and it would depend upon contributions from locals. It was all over the
world. In the US, it was hundreds of sites with most states having
multiple Indy Media Center sites.

Today? The circus is falling down on its kneesThe big top is crumbling downIt's raining in Baltimore fifty miles eastWhere you should be, no one's aroundI need a phone callI need a raincoatI need a big loveI need a phone call
-- "Raining in Baltimore," written by Adam Duritz, first appears on Counting Crows' August and Everything

That
should have been huge, IMC. It had the least overhead. It did face
attacks from the Justice Dept, true. But most destructive, if you talk
to Indymedia vets, was the Cult of St. Barack. I disagree. The most
destructive aspect was catering to the Cult of St. Barack. No one
forced you to cater. But once you did, your readers -- or drive-bys --
knew you could be bullied into submission so they then controlled what
you covered and what you didn't. You traded influence for likability
failing to grasp that influence is the only thing that matters. Or, for
that matter, that the people who say they'll love you when you write
just what they tell you forget to inform you that they won't respect you
and they won't read you. You sealed your own fates. In the process,
you ran off your real audience -- a group of independent thinkers from
across the political spectrum who didn't see anything 'independent'
about an outlet becoming suck-up to teacher each day. The brown nosing
is what killed IMC. The sites that survived tended to be willing to
fight for what they believed in. San Francisco offers the best example.
San Francisco Indymedia was an embarrassment. It was nothing but a megaphone for the Democratic Party. Indybay was independent. The two fought like crazy and there was bad blood. Both claimed to represent the Bay Area. In the end, San Francisco Indymedia was
the one to go under. Colorado IMC was incredibly independent and
that's why it thrives today. But so many of the outlets became nothing
but cheerleaders. They'd cheerlead politicians and they cheerlead TV
personalities. They offered no critique that was worth reading. They
were rehashing talking points about 2003 and 2004 and the GOP is evil
and blah blah blah. It didn't reflect the changed landscape. It was
artificial and fake.

And so it died. Indymedia can't applaud,
for example, the Libyan War and expect to have an audience. It goes
against everything IMC was created for.

IMC had a huge audience
when it was able to provide Iraq commentary and some coverage. Those
outlets that continued to be about justice flourished. The bulk went
under as they twisted themselves into pretzels to justify one sell-out
after another by the now-in-charge Democrats. There are answers here
for future generations and for media activists. But notice how this
topic has been ignored. Notice how the deaths of IMCs all over the
country have taken place with no comment from the same outlets that used
to promote them.

The Iraq War is illegal. It has also been a
non-stop teachable moment demonstrating what we refuse to look at as a
people, what we refuse to examine, what we will put up with and what we
will gladly ignore. All the people wasting time trying to pinpoint the
so-called death of TV news or news or whatever miss the reality that a
vibrant healthy media has been one of the biggest casualties of the Iraq
War -- and that took place after 2003.